Carlisle's heart
by 68151308
Summary: HIATUS. Cullens grow concerned over unwelcome interest into the family when Jenks reveals someone is asking about them. How will the family react when the stranger is revealed? is carlisle's the only heart she will work her way into?canon pairing.OOC/off cannon


_**A/N: Hi guys, another story here but it's only a short one I think. This is just a little idea that's been going through my head for a while. I know that there is nothing in the books to suggest that Carlisle would have this relative but I just kind of liked the idea. So please no flames about it being unrealistic as this is fiction and I am saying from the start that this is off canon and often out of character. **_

_**It's a light little story and hopefully should be a fun to write.**_

_**Hope you guys like it, let me know what you think.**_

_**Gemma xxx**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own twilight and unfortunately I make no money from this fanfic. Wish I did. :-( xxx**_

EPOV

I closed my eyes and took in a deep and relaxing breath as I flexed my fingers in place whilst my hands hovered over the keys of my beloved Steinbeck. I felt my shoulders relax as my fingers begin to glide over the keys and I allowed myself to become lost in the music. My eyes remained closed in concentration as my mind drifted back to what vague memories I had from my human life.

I thought of my mother's pride as she observed me from her seat in the music room in my childhood home. She was looking on intently as I gave her a rendition of Chopin's nocturne in B flat minor; her favourite piece. Her bright green eyes glazed with adoration for her only son as the final notes rang through the air. She beamed a beautiful smile at me as she approached my place at the piano, her bronze hair falling in waves by her shoulders. She clasped her hands together over her heart as she gushed out her words of praise for me and placed a warm, gentle palm on my cheek.

My shoulders slumped as the memory came to an abrupt stop; I felt a sharp pang in my chest at the sense of loss that overcame me whenever I thought of her. This was the only memory I had of my beloved mother and it was short and fleeting. I had been exceptionally close to my mother as much of her time was spent in my company, with my father being a lawyer who was often out of the house for work which left me as her main focus. Our family was fortunate in its affluence, enough so to make us comfortable at any rate. As such, I was able to spend the majority of my free time as a child and indeed an adolescent playing my grand piano as an escape from mundane tasks and as a means to see my mother's pride. More often towards the end of my human life, I had taken to playing as a method of distraction whenever my mother would voice her concerns for me to begin my search for a wife. I had never had any interest in the girls in our neighbourhood or our social circles. Often they were shallow and vapid; offering no opinions of their own and no intellectual value to a conversation and regardless, I could see no need for a wife at my young age. My mother and the social convention of the time would beg to differ though.

Despite the bond with my mother, I greatly yearned for my father's approval. He was a kind, but traditional man; who was tight lipped and stoic regarding his emotions, as were the majority of good men at the time. I became aware that the only way I would earn an opportunity to hear him voice his approval for me, would be through professional success or the provision of an heir. I had no desire to settle down with any of the girls I had met thus far and so the latter was out of the question. I saw an opportunity to gain instantaneous pride through the means of a hero's welcome upon return from the upcoming war. I had unrealistic visions of signing up with the army following my impending 18th birthday, fighting bravely in the First World War and returning home to a warm welcome and my father's love. Time has taught me the foolishness of my plans, as had they come to fruition, I would likely not have returned at all. This was my mother's fear when she prayed daily for 'the end of the dreadful war'. However, my boyish dreams of pride and honour proved to be pointless at any rate and my mother's worries were in vain; for little did any of us know that Spanish influenza would kill off all three of us before I reached my birthday. My mother and father were buried and laid to rest with the respect that they deserve. Whereas, I was dragged into this life or indeed granted a second chance; depending on your viewpoint. I tried to stay positive and view it as a new life; full of opportunities, but that wasn't always easy when I lived with three perfectly matched couples. The loneliness could be overwhelming at times.

I didn't even realise I had stopped playing and was sitting in silence until Jasper burst through the front door of the custom made home that I shared with my family. He looked frantic as he slapped his chin length blonde hair away from his face and sighed deeply through his nose. I immediately sat up and took notice as it was a rare occurrence for Jasper to appear flustered about anything. As an empath, with the ability to control and manipulate emotions around him, he was usually the epitome of calm. He often emanated an element of self-control that was a bi-product of his life as a major in the confederate army during his human years. Maintaining a level head had been in his job description back then. He stormed straight upstairs with his phone glued to his ear without so much as a greeting and I resumed my playing, hoping a soft melody might sooth his current demeanour. I decided not to pry as over the years I had learnt that Jasper would seek you out when he was ready, pushing him to open up only caused him to retreat. I had confidence enough in our relationship to know that we were close enough for him to feel able to approach me if he needed to. No offers were needed.

JPOV

I had known someone was trailing the family for almost a month now and it was making me nervous. As the resident techie within the Cullen's, I was responsible for our paper trail. So I knew when someone had run a computer or police check on any of us. Of course the most common for this type of check was Carlisle; given his chosen career.

However, just recently, the number of checks and enquiries had increased. I had been monitoring the situation for a while when I received a call from our lawyer, Jenks who wanted to meet with me. He had said that he had some urgent news that he didn't feel comfortable discussing over the phone. I agreed to meet him at his office in Seattle.

I took a moment to compose myself as I sat in the car in deafening silence outside Jenk's office building. I knew logically there was no reason for me to be nervous. There was no way he or anyone else could suspect the truth about us, but still, the anxiety was creeping in. I knew that regardless of his suspicions, he would never act upon them by trying to draw attention to the family. Even if he did, callous as it sounds, he was easily taken care of but I wanted to avoid that as much as possible. I was dedicated to this life and respected each human life but my family would always come first. This is why I hadn't involved Edward as I normally would even though he would be able to tell me what was occurring much more quickly and accurately than Jenks would. But I didn't want my brother implicated if this ended with the worst case scenario.

I steadied my nerves and forced myself to adopt a pleasant facial expression as I exited my car and approached the building. I practiced my people skills on the vapid receptionist as I announced politely that I was here to see Jenks. She smiled with far too much enthusiasm and batted her eyelids at me in an unsuccessful attempt at seduction. I nodded my head and smiled at her warmly, turning on the charm shamelessly, even throwing a wink in there for good measure. Taking the lift up to Jenks' floor, I thought about how this could go. I could realistically end up needing to kill him today. I knew I had the ability to do so painlessly; I wouldn't make him suffer. Also, I wouldn't want to arouse suspicion either. We would have to move, there would be no other way to do it.

I shook my head gently to rid myself of this train of thought. I was getting ahead of myself; the army major in me taking over at the first scent of danger. I didn't know the story yet; this could all be something and nothing. I reminded myself not to condemn poor Jenks without good cause. It was with this thought that the elevator made a high pitched sound and came to a stop; the doors opened revealing a very fearful looking Jenks. He was sweating profusely as his eyes darted to mine. I tried to hide my initial disgust as he held out a clammy hand to me in greeting. I took it firmly, shaking once and nodding to him to lead me to his office. He nodded frantically in return, his breathing fast and heavy.

He led me to a small but light room, full windows covering the far side of the room, offering panoramic views of the city. It was clear, that he reserved this office for meetings with his more valued and influential clientele. He gestured for me to sit and I impatiently accepted, declining his drink offer, he blanched as he noticed my eyes boring into his as my tolerance for him and this tedium steadily diminished.

"Jenks…" I started, trying without success to swallow the vicious bite in my tone, Jenks flinched.

"Mr Jasper," he swallowed audibly, his nerves getting the better of him, I suppressed a smirk.

"I thought you should see this." He said producing a file. I had very little interest in its contents as no doubt I would already be aware of it all, I was far more observant than I could allow him to know. I began to look over it, exaggerating my enthusiasm for his sake.

"So, what exactly am I looking at Jenks?"

"Erm… well…It's a log of interest in your family or more precisely; your brother in law." My brow furrowed in confusion or less than a second until I remembered Carlisle was posing as my brother in law at this current time. This was necessary as Jenks had to believe I was over 21 to take me seriously as a representative for my family in matters of the law, so adoptive father role was not really appropriate. I nodded in response whilst encouraging him to continue.

"Well… yes … a number of people have been enquiring about him…" he stammered out slowly. He was trying my patience and he knew it. It was taking increasing effort to bite my tongue. I growled lightly, catching myself just in time and hoping that he had missed it. The fear on his face as he met my eyes told me that he hadn't.

"Sorry Jenks go on. What do you mean a number of people? I can see a log of phone calls here?" I questioned him hoping he wouldn't be too scared to elaborate. I sent a wave of calm over to him hoping he would feel comfortable enough to continue. His posture instantly relaxed and his fear diminished somewhat. I forced a smile in his direction.

"Yes at least two men and a woman. The woman; now she was a beauty, absolutely stunning. In fact…" I groaned, I had obviously made him feel too secure in my presence as he as now rambling.

"Who was she?" I all but yelled to him. He flinched causing me to sigh and close my eyes in frustration.

"She said her name was Miss Swan, but I have no further details. I didn't tell her anything I swear." He rambled in a panicked tone. I nodded in order to placate him, even if I felt like snapping his neck right now.

"Who were these men? Did they come in with her?" I questioned in a rush.

He shook his head furiously.

"Oh, no no. These visits were weeks apart. I thought nothing of it. Only one man has been to see me, a Mr Demetri; he called about an inaccuracy in some documentation. However when I looked him up this morning, shortly before calling you, I can find no record of his organisation." This got my attention and my eyes shot to his full of anger.

"What did he want?" I demanded.

"Ad…add…address. Your brother in laws address." This puzzled me, why would anyone need our address? Jenks whimpered as he continued.

"You needn't worry though; he had the wrong address for you anyway. He had you listed as residing in Washington, some dingy little town …" he shuffled about with papers on his desk before looking up at me again and scoffing before he answered.

"Yes here we are, Forks, somewhere called Forks." My eyes shot to his and dread over took my body, Jenks had a completely different address for legal reasons, and so whoever was looking for us knew of both our identities in forks and our alias' here with Jenks. This concerned me and I wanted out of this office. I needed to get answers from Carlisle.

"What about this third guy, Jenks?" I questioned whilst dreading the answer.

Jenks shook his head and wore a bemused expression.

"Well, that's the weirdest thing, you see." He carried on with himself avoiding my eyes.

"He kept referring to you as Mr Whitlock, and I said to him, your mistaken, there aint no Whitlock's in that family. They're all Cullen's, see." He said with a quiet chuckle and the urge to snap his neck would have been too much if the realisation hadn't hit me like a freight train.

Whoever this guy was, he knew I was a Whitlock, nobody outside the family knew that. I hadn't used that name for decades. Even when we acted under the pretence of being adopted, I went as a Hale with Rosalie; never a Whitlock. Somebody had done their research, and they had gone back a long way.

The rage became too much and I launched myself at Jenks, careful to restrain my strength as I did so. I grabbed him by his shirt collar and launched him into the back of the door frame.

"Now you listen to me Jenks." I hissed, my tone laced with venom, his eyes were wide as I bored into them with my own.

"You work for me, remember that. You have disclosed information about my family, albeit, unintentionally. If you do that again, I will destroy you. Do you understand?" I demanded, not entirely decided on whether I wouldn't destroy him regardless. He nodded and moved hesitantly away from me. For a moment I feared he would lose control of his bladder, so strong was the sense of fear emanating form him.

"Y-y-yes sir." He mumbled out.

"If you hear from any of these people again, you contact me immediately." I practically roared at him. He nodded meekly and I launched myself out of the room without as much as a parting word.

I had to see my father immediately. I called him informing him of an emergency situation regarding an outside interest in the family and he agreed to meet me back at the house as soon as he could after he had worriedly enquired after the immediate safety of each family member. I reassured him on that respect but said we had a security issue which needed addressing immediately. He muttered his acknowledgement and hung up, rushing off to make his excuses at work.

I jumped in my car and tried to calm myself and made a quick call to Alice to check on her before I sped home to see my father. As I got closer to the house I could feel myself becoming more and more aggravated at the thought of someone tailing my family. My initial thought was for Alice, and what I would be forced to do if someone was following her. Before I knew it, I had to hear her again; my love for her was overwhelming at times, her voice holding the power to drown out my worries. She was chatting on about something or other that she had seen or bought or worn or something. She was happy enough; I was just enjoying hearing her voice. Of course, she knew something was wrong but I just told her it was an admin issue and not to worry, I was probably getting stressed over nothing. She didn't believe me, naturally, but let it go nonetheless; for which I was grateful. She was still chatting as I pulled to an abrupt stop outside the house and flew through the door and straight upstairs. I vaguely noticed Edward sat in the family room at his piano where he was spending more and more time lately, although I didn't stop to offer a greeting. I was too aggravated to talk in a civil manner to anyone but Alice right now, instead heading straight upstairs to Carlisle's office to wait for him.

I said goodbye to Alice and sat for a few minutes mulling over the situation, the soft melody emanating up the stairs did little to calm me, taking on an almost morbid tone as my thoughts and worries overcame me. I was growing increasingly anxious for Carlisle to get in here. I had heard Carlisle's car pull up outside a few minutes ago but he had stopped to talk to Edward before coming up here. I heard his approach and could tell that he had Edward with him. There was a small knock at the door before my brother and father entered, each wearing a sombre impression.

EPOV

I could hear my brother pacing upstairs when my father pulled up outside the house and ran in with as much urgency as Jasper had. He noticed me as I sat silently at the piano bench. He sighed in relief as he saw me.

"Edward is Jasper in my office?" he said anxiously. I nodded in response.

"Could you come with me please? We have a slight situation and I would like you to be aware of it." he made a move to his office without waiting for a response from me. I followed without question.

"Jasper has it on good authority that someone is enquiring about the family; our main concern is who would be interested in us. It could be nomads or we could be attracting negative attention without having realised it. That's why I want you in the loop, I need you to be on alert to peoples responses from here on in; be diligent. Come, let's go speak to Jasper." He added in a rush before softly knocking on the office door before he entered with me following.

Jasper nodded in my direction by way of a greeting and dragged his hands down his face as he exhaled a long breath in exasperation.

"Tell us what you know Jasper." My father requested with urgency.

"Well, y'all know that we are being followed. We've got someone looking into the Cullen's and they're going back quite a way too. They knew I used to go by Whitlock and it's been decades since I have used that name so there is no reason for it to be associated with the Cullen name, even Jenks doesn't know of it." he started with a sigh. Carlisle looked at me with a worried expression; I managed a tight lipped smile as Jasper continued.

"From what Jenk's could tell me; there is a woman and two men that are enquiring about us. A man and a woman have been to Jenks in person and a man over the phone. They also know that we are based in forks so know that our accounts with Jenks are different to our alias here. They have looked into us and gone pretty deep. I don't know how it has gone unnoticed for so long." he sighed as he said this and slumped in the desk chair looking defeated.

"Do you have any indication what they might want Jasper?" I asked gently. He shook his head in response.

"No clue. We won't know until they make a move to contact us." He added in response.

"Do we know anything else about them Jasper, anything at all?" Carlisle added desperately.

"All I know is the names of the man and woman that have been enquiring at Jenk's office. Well, the names they are using at any rate." Jasper said in a flat tone, clearly not seeing any relevance in the names as they were most likely aliases. Carlisle perked up at this news, however. Jasper noticed and continued.

"A Mr Demetri and a Miss Swan." Jasper responded without making eye contact with either of us.

Carlisle had stiffened beside me, he swallowed audibly and mumbled "swan" over and over again.

"Are you alright Carlisle? " I asked anxiously. I was starting to worry about him, he didn't look good.

"Swan. You said Swan, right?" he confirmed in Jaspers direction. My brother nodded in response.

"Does that name mean something to you Carlisle?" Jasper asked nervously. He nodded.

"It was my mother's maiden name. Whoever is showing an interest in this family; they are looking for me. It is someone from my past, nobody these days knows of my mother's family. She died when I was born and so her name is never mentioned, not anymore. This is a message, they want me. Not my family." He said before turning away in a daze.

I looked to Jasper for guidance and he gently shook his head in response.

_**A/N : thanks for reading, hope you're enjoying so far. This is just for fun and will only be short. Please review and let me know what you think.**_

_**Gemma xx**_


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